| Eastern Grassfields | |
|---|---|
| Mbam–Nkam | |
| Geographic distribution | Cameroon |
| Linguistic classification | Niger–Congo?
|
| Subdivisions | |
| Language codes | |
| Glottolog | mbam1249 |
The Eastern Grassfields languages, spoken in the Western High Plateau of Cameroon, are a branch of the Grassfields languages including Bamun, Yamba and Bamileke.
The Eastern Grassfield languages have nasal prefixes, while Western Grassfield languages have only "remnants of nasal prefixes".1 These Grassfield Bantu (GB) languages share about a 41 to 60 percent lexical similarities.2
There are four or five branches to the family:
- Nkambe languages (north)
- Mbam–Nkam (south)
Nurse (2003) reports that Bamileke might be two branches.
References
References
- Akumbu, Pius W.; Wills, Jeffrey (2022). "Remnants of nasal prefixes in Western Grassfields Bantu (abstract)" (pdf). University of Hamburg. p. 2. Retrieved April 28, 2026.
- Watters, John R. (2006). Grasslands Bantu, Chapter 14 of The Bantu Languages, Volume 4 of Routledge Language Family Series. Routledge. pp. 225, 227. ISBN 9781135796839. Retrieved April 28, 2026.